What is Social Media Marketing?
So, what exactly is social media marketing? At its core, it’s all about using social media platforms to connect with your audience. Whether you’re looking to build your brand, boost sales, or drive traffic to your website, social media is the place to be! By leveraging the built-in analytical tools that these platforms offer, businesses can gain valuable insights into audience behaviour and preferences. This knowledge helps refine social media strategies and enhances efforts to drive traffic to their websites.
When we talk about social media marketing, there are several key aspects to consider: creating great content, audience engagement, targeted advertising, analytics and insights, and, of course, building brand awareness.
Crafting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
To achieve effective social media marketing and a solid return on investment, starting with a clear strategy is essential. Before diving into content creation, take a moment to step back and see the bigger picture. A well-thought-out plan is crucial—after all, random acts of content lead to random results!
Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to creating your social media strategy:
- Set your social media marketing goals
- Define your target audience
- Choose your platforms
- Create a content calendar
- Analyse your content performance
- Evaluate your content strategy
Keep in mind that your social media strategy isn’t a one-time task; it’s an evolving plan that should be regularly tweaked and updated. Instead of viewing the steps above as a checklist to tick off, think of them as part of a continuous cycle.
The Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Given its widespread use and versatility, social media is an incredibly effective channel for marketing your business today. Let’s explore some specific benefits of social media marketing:
- Humanises Your Business: Social media allows businesses to become active participants in their market. By giving your brand a real, authentic personality, you can create a connection with potential customers. In fact, 64% of people say they’re more likely to engage with a brand they can relate to on a personal level!
- Drives Traffic: As mentioned earlier, social media is a fantastic way to increase traffic to your website through links in your profile, blog posts, and ads. This is where you can convert visitors into actual customers. Plus, social signals can indirectly impact your SEO!
- Generates Leads and Customers: You can generate conversions directly on social media platforms through features like Instagram/Facebook shops, direct messaging, and CTAs on profiles. By partnering with Shopify, DNRG now offers seamless integration with social media. If you’d like to learn more, join our free webinar!
- Increases Brand Awareness: Not every social media post will directly convert into a sale, but it’s one of the best ways to establish your visual identity across a vast audience. Greater brand awareness often leads to better results in your other marketing campaigns.
- Builds Relationships: Social media opens both direct and indirect lines of communication with your followers, allowing you to network, gather feedback, hold discussions, and connect with individuals directly.
Organic vs. Paid Social
While organic reach is still a thing, it tends to vary based on account size and industry. Generally, only about 10-20% of accounts enjoy strong organic reach. Due to algorithm changes and content saturation, many accounts are experiencing lower engagement rates. I’m not saying you should stop optimising your organic social media marketing efforts, but incorporating paid social strategies can significantly increase your visibility by covering both organic and paid aspects.
Paid social refers to using paid advertising on social media platforms to reach a targeted audience. This involves creating ads that appear in users’ feeds, usually as sponsored posts or display ads. It allows businesses to reach their ideal customers with precision by targeting specific demographics and behaviours.
By leveraging the advertising features on these platforms, businesses can promote content to people who don’t already follow them, helping to attract new followers and boost brand visibility in a shorter amount of time.
Paid Social Statistics
- Facebook ads reach a staggering 2.89 billion active users.
- Ads on Facebook are seen by 34.1% of the global population aged 13 and up.
- The average conversion rate for Facebook ads across various industries is 9.21%.
- Instagram boasts a 1.16% average engagement rate.
- A whopping 130 million users tap on shopping posts every month!
LinkedIn Ads
- LinkedIn’s average conversion rate for lead-generation ads is 6.1% higher than Google Ads.
General Statistics
- Paid social ads can boost brand awareness by 8%, giving businesses excellent visibility to engage with their target audience.
- 76% of consumers have purchased a product after seeing a brand’s social media post or ad.
- Social media advertising drives 47% of conversions for marketers in the e-commerce sector.
- Social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and image combined, and video ads boost conversions by 34%.
Paid Social Best Practices for 2024
Although the social media landscape is always changing, here are some best practices for optimising your paid social media campaigns to achieve the best engagement and reach:
- Don’t Stress About Studio-Quality Finishes: You don’t need a professional studio setup for your videos and images. Grab your phone and start creating!
- Sound On/Off: Use closed captions for inclusivity, but give users the option to choose.
- Tailor Your Content for Placement: Pay attention to text placement. For instance, avoid putting text in the bottom third of your image or video, as that’s usually the last place people will look.
- Let the Brand Breathe: While brand guidelines are essential, it’s okay to loosen the rules a bit when creating content.
- Cater to Shorter Attention Spans: Think about the five-second rule—you only have a handful of seconds to grab your audience’s attention. Aim for video ad lengths of 5-15 seconds on Facebook.
The Verdict
In today’s digital landscape, social media marketing is not just an option; it’s a necessity. By implementing a well-thought-out strategy and embracing both organic and paid tactics, you can significantly enhance your brand’s visibility, engage with your audience, and drive meaningful conversions.
If you are ready to delve deeper into the world of paid social marketing, be sure to check out our comprehensive paid social guide. It covers everything you need to know to get started effectively.
For those in the B2B space, leveraging LinkedIn is essential. Learn how to maximise your efforts with LinkedIn marketing for B2B guide. Otherwise, if you have any questions, or would like personalised advice, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media marketing.
